New research from investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine presents significant advancements in breast cancer prognostication. The study, published in Breast Cancer Research and led by Dr. Tan Ince, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and colleagues including first author Dr. Mohamed Omar, assistant professor of research in pathology and laboratory medicine, focuses on the co-expression of estrogen (ER), androgen (AR), and vitamin D (VDR) hormone receptors in breast cancer cells.
Using an mRNA signature, THR-70, the study aimed to categorize breast tumors based on their triple hormone receptor (THR) expression levels. Investigators evaluated the effectiveness of these signatures across 56 breast cancer datasets involving over five thousand patients, using survival analysis and statistical methods. THR-70 is the first gene expression signature that measures all three hormone receptors together: ER, AR and VDR.
Per their results, the THR-70 signatures demonstrated strong predictive power for survival across various breast cancer subtypes and clinical conditions. This new method was inspired by the way evolutionary biologists classify different species based on common ancestors. It incorporates cell-of-origin ancestry information of breast cancers in tumor subtyping, which significantly impacts tumor biology and treatment response. It offers a more nuanced and clinically relevant approach to predicting patient outcomes and personalizing treatment strategies. Future research will further validate these findings and explore their application in clinical settings.